The Princess Who Went to War

Chapter 6 - Call Me Calysta

[Calysta]

I meet Gwen at the training grounds and found her practicing her archery. I looked around, watching the soldiers and knights train, some of them looking flustered when they noticed me watching, some of them so immersed in training that they don't notice me. 

The sky turns dark and the stars begin to appear as the sun has fully set. Squires light fires to keep the training grounds lit.

"Princess Calysta." I look to my right when I hear Ser Remnand call me. 

I turn to him and he bows as he stops right in front of me. 

"I've heard from Ser Elwood." He tells me. I nod as I turn back to watch those who are training. From the side of my eye, I see him turn to watch as well. 

"I've never seen those sigils before." I tell him, looking straight ahead. 

"Is there any chance you can trace it back to its source, Your Highness?" He asks me. 

I shake my head, "I've never had professional training as a sorceress. I was never mentored by anyone. My mother died on the day my magic manifested, and I've only met other sorceress for a few times, but none of them trained me." I reply. 

This is why I don't believe I've truly realized the extent of my magic. Like earlier, I think I have abilities I don't really know of yet. 

Since I was little, I've only been discovering my magic by myself. I hear Ser Remnand sigh. 

"The Crown Prince has written to the other sorceress in the Kingdom. Should they offer their assistance, they might know what to do." I say. 

"Do you think it is possible?" Ser Remnand asks, reffering to the rumors of a Sorcerer, I assume. 

"I hope not." I reply as I turn to him. He turns to me as well. 

"If it is, I will make sure he does not harm Raziem." I say. He nods and bows as I start to walk away. The dinner bells ring as I start to walk towards the dining halls. 

Gwen catches up to me and walks alongside me as we head right into the dining halls.

"You talked to Ser Remnand?"  She asks. I simply nod as a reply. 

"Prince Atticus has written to other sorceress in the Kingdom. We'll find the root of this." She says, assuring me. 

I look at her and manage a small smile as we both head into the dining halls. 

Gwen and I line up to get food and take our seats next to each other at the far end of one of the long tables in the dining halls. As per usual, the stone walls and floors glisten as the place is brightly lit. 

Gwen and I start eating, when I hear our dinner, when a voice from in front of us draws our attention.

"Your Highness!" Ulysses, the youngest of Ser Elwood's soldiers acknowledge me as he walks by. He looks like he was just about to be seated with the soldiers in the table right in front of us. 

"Good evening, Ulysses." I greet him. He looks flustered, looking back and forth from our table and the table with the other soldiers as he holds his plate with both hands. 

"May I sit with you?" He asks, not even able to look at me. Gwen and I look at each other. 

"You don't have to. You can sit with your friends." I assure him. 

The last thing I would want to be is the overbearing Royal. I would hate it if the people I work with feel obligated to dine with me just because of my rank. 

Ulysses looks slightly constipated now, opening and then closing his mouth, trying to say something.

"He really does want to dine with you, Your Highness." I turn to see Randall walking towards Ulysses, a plate of food in hand.

I look back to see Ulysses nodding, affirming what Randall has said.

"Well, you may." I tell him. 

Ulysses immediately sits down. To my surprise, Randall sits right beside him as well, having both of them sit right across Gwen and I. 

Soldiers and knights around us turn to look as they whisper amongst themselves, probably wondering why Randall and Ulysses would be sitting with us.

This concerns me, as I wouldn't want them to be the center of ridicule. 

"They talk about us whether we sit with you or not, so we might as well." Randall says out loud, as if reading my mind. 

"Why would they?" Gwen asks. 

"They find it extremely arrogant that Gabriel has only chosen a few nights under his command." Ulysses says. 

"That, and the fact that Gabriel is the youngest to ever be knighted in Raziem." Randall adds. 

This makes sense to me. Men has a tendency to immediately dislike whatever outshines them. In this case, having someone young and with little experience to have earned the same title as them can be considered as an embarrassment. 

"You refer to Ser Elwood by his first name?" Gwen points out. 

"Well, it's what Gabriel prefers." Ulysses replies. 

"When we're in official meetings or missions with others, we call him Ser Elwood. But by ourselves, he prefers that we call him Gabriel." Randall tells us. 

"I could never do that." Gwen says as she goes back to eating her soup. 

Having worked for the Royal family since she was little and living in the Palace, Gwen has always obeyed a strict conduct on how she should act and how she addresses her superiors. 

"Well, you can call me Calysta." I tell Gwen. To me, it really is not a big deal.

"Your Highness." Gwen says, rather seriously. 

"You've known me since I was 13, Gwen. It shouldn't be that hard." I insist. 

I take a glance at Randall and Ulysses, who both seem very amused with this conversation. 

"The commander would never let me." She answers, referring to Ser Briston, the commander of the Royal guards. 

Only members of the Royal family has ever referred to me by my first name, as they are the only ones allowed to do so. 

The only other person that has ever called me Calysta would be the Sorceress of fire. I met her when I was 10 years old, and she refuses to acknowledge my title. 

"You don't see Ser Briston anywhere, do you?" I reply. 

She looks at me, looking like she's about to have a full breakdown from what I'm asking of her. 

"Just say Calysta. My name's not that hard." I tell her.

She shakes her head, "I really can— "

"Calysta." I say my name slowly, as if I'm teaching a child. 

"Calysta." She repeats. I laugh as she looks extremely flustered after.

"No one here will scold you for calling me Calysta." I remind her. 

"Can I call you Calysta too?" Ulysses suddenly asks, and I'm taken aback. Randall immediately nudges him.

"Her Highness has been with Gwen for a long time and you've only known her for a day, Uly." Randall reminds him. This causes Ulysses to look embarrassed as he looks down.

I smile at this. Ulysses, despite being just a year younger than I am, reminds me greatly of Liliana. 

"You may." I tell him. Both he and Randall look at me in shock.

"It's nice having people call me by my name here." I tell them as I continue to eat. 

For the rest of the night, we share stories and laugh together. I learn how Ulysses and Randall became soldiers, Gwen shared how she was chosen to be a part of the Royal Guards at a young age, and I share about my magic and life in the Palace. 

Once we finish our dinner, we all head out together. Soldiers, squires, knights and even the kitchen staff stared, but it didn't really matter to me. 

"We shall take our leave, You— Calysta." Randall says, almost addressing me as "Your Highness". I chuckle at this.

"It was nice getting to know you both." I tell them.

"We hope to be able to work on missions with you more, Gwen and Caly!" Ulysses says as they both walk back towards the quarters. 

"You head back too, Gwen. I'll stop by the top of the wall to check that everything's okay." I tell her. 

"I'll come with you." She tells me.

"It's fine. There are more guards on top of those walls than there are in the Palace." I tell her as an exaggeration. 

She reluctantly agrees as she lets me go and head back our quarters. I take the spiral stairs and climb up the main tower. 

Soldiers briefly bow to me as I walk past them. 

I watch the forest, still covered in fog as I walk along the walls. I stop right in middle, in between two towers and lean to watch the sky. 

I sigh as the memory of how my wind slashed a goblin in half still lingers in my mind. I take my right hand and raise it, so that it's eye level. I will for wind to come. 

Wind bounces and dances on my hand I watch it for a while before I close my hand and remember what I did earlier. As swiftly as I could, I flick my right hand, sending the wind right up, splitting a passing moth in half. 

I watch it fall to the ground, right outside of the walls. I look at my hand again, afraid of what I'm capable of. 

I'll have to train this newfound ability and make sure that I do not accidentally hurt my people in moments of panic. 

I still struggle to control my magic at times. Especially when my emotions get the best of me.

"Your Highness." I swiftly turn and come into a defensive position when a voice to my right startled me. I relax when I find that it's Ser Elwood coming towards me.

"What are you doing here?" I ask him as I turn away from him, looking back into the forest. He does the same, a distance away from me. 

"You're not the only one who likes to walk the walls at night." He replies as I once again hold out my hand and let wind bounce on and off of it. 

Though air is relatively invisible, when I use my magic to control it, it becomes somewhat visible. 

"What you did, to the goblin..." He starts off saying. 

"I didn't even know I could do that." I tell him honestly. He turns to look at me, looking shocked. I turn to look at him as well.

"I've never slashed anything with my winds before." I tell him, letting the wind on my hand dissipate. 

"You never discovered it in training?" He asks me. 

"I was never formally trained. I figured everything by myself." I tell him. This confuses him. 

"My mother died the day I discovered I had magic. She was never able to teach me how to use it or how to discover its full potential." I add. 

"You didn't try training with other Sorceress?" He asks. 

"I only met a few, and none of them likes me that much. They despise the fact that my mother, a fellow sorceress, married into the Royal Family. You and the Sorceress have that in common. Despising my family." I tell him as I force a chuckle. He doesn't say anything, and just looks straight ahead, into the forest. 

The silence starts to sound deafening, so I take a step back and face him, "I must head back. I hope to be able to work with you again in the future." I tell him as I start to walk away.

"You hope?" He asks. I turn back to face him and start moving backwards.

"Well, Randall and Uly call me by my first name now. I'd love to work with them more." I tell him.

"As I've heard." He replies. With that, I turn back forward and start walking back into the main tower and down the spiral staircase to head to back to the quarters.